Historical Sports: 1963 State Champions

This school year will be the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears winning the state basketball championship at Eielson Air Force Base outside of Fairbanks. That team is, standing left-to-right: John Stringer, Jan Dabney, Jeff Prather, John Borbridge, Dick Olsen, Wayne Matheny. Kneeling left-to-right: Mike Triplette, Sasha Soboleff, Pat Gullufsen, John Bertholl, and Doc Eide. According to photo contributor Gil Eide, this was several years after the consolidation of the Juneau and Douglas school districts but there was still some rivalry out there. At the conclusion of the championship game, Mike Pusich, owner of Mike's Place in Douglas, announced in his restaurant that "Douglas had just won the state championship".... even though there were no Douglas players on the team.

JUNEAU EMPIRE

This school year will be the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears winning the state basketball championship at Eielson Air Force Base outside of Fairbanks.